Central College Bengaluru (1858) is one of the oldest colleges in India. This college was originally affiliated to

University of Mysore The University of Mysore is a public state university in Mysore, Karnataka, India. The university was founded during the reign of Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore. The university is recognised by the University Grants Commission ...

Mysore State Mysore State, colloquially Old Mysore, was a state within the Dominion of India and the later Republic of India from 1947 until 1956. The state was formed by renaming the Kingdom of Mysore, and Bangalore replaced Mysore as the state's capital. ...

. Rev. John Garrett was the first principal of the Central High School, which was afterwards renamed Central College. In 1964, with the reorganization of the Indian state and the formation of Karnataka, Central College was transferred to

Bangalore University Bangalore University (BU) is a public state university located in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. The university is a part of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and affiliated by Univers ...

, a new university formed in 1965 to meet the needs of the people of

Bengaluru Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

. Initially, the two colleges of the city, the Central College (CC) and the

University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering University of Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) was established in 1917, under the name Government Engineering College, by Bharat Ratna Sir M. Visvesvaraya. It is the fifth engineering college to be established in the country and first ...

(UVCE) formed the nucleus of Bangalore University.

History

The Central College, Bengaluru was started in 1886 by the British government to award University Degrees. It was renamed as the Bangalore University from Central College, Bangalore by the

University Grants Commission (India) University Grants Commission (UGC) is a statutory body set up by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Government of India in accordance to the UGC Act 1956 and is charged with coordination, determination and maintenance ...

on 10 July 1964 by the government under the then State of

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

to consolidate institutions of higher education in the city of Bangalore. The Bangalore University, which was created out of

in 1964, was operated for many years from the Central College till 1973, when the Jnana Bharathi campus was established.

Sir C. V. Raman Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (; 7 November 188821 November 1970) was an Indian physicist known for his work in the field of light scattering. Using a spectrograph that he developed, he and his student K. S. Krishnan discovered that when ...

, Nobel Laureate Physicist, was associated with the University while working at the

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute wa ...

. He had announced his Nobel winning work at the University premises based in Central College, Bengaluru in 1927. He was awarded the Nobel prize in 1930. The Central College Campus retained as the City Campus of

houses the City offices of the Vice Chancellor, Registrar, Registrar (Evaluation), Finance (Examination part), UGC Academic Staff College, Directorate of Correspondence Courses and Distance Education Centre, Directorate of College Development Council, Directorate of Physical Education and a few post graduate departments and support services, with a state of the art Jnana Jyothi Auditorium. Besides, the Central College also has the Central College Cricket Pavilion where the Karnataka State Cricket Association was first established and trained several cricketers of International repute.

Notable professors

B. S. Madhava Rao Bangalore Srinivasarao Madhava Rao (29 May 1900 – 11 June 1987) was an Indian mathematician and physicist who served as a professor of mathematics at Central College, Bangalore. He worked on mathematical physics and collaborated with Max Born ...

, Principal (1952–55) of Central College and Professor of Mathematics * L. Rama Rao, Principal of Central College and Professor of Geology. *

E. P. Metcalfe Edward Parr Metcalfe FInstP FASc (1880–30 November 1949) was the former vice chancellor and Professor of Physics, and Principal of Central College of Bangalore University. He served as Vice-Chancellor of Mysore University from 1930 to 1937. ...

, Principal of Central College *

P. C. Mahalanobis Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis OBE, FNA, FASc, FRS (29 June 1893– 28 June 1972) was an Indian scientist and statistician. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure, and for being one of the members of the first ...

* C. N. S. Iyengar, Founder Head of the Department of Mathematics,

Karnataka University Dharwad Karnatak University is a public state university in Dharwad district of Karnataka state, India. The university is recognized by University Grants Commission and accredited by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). As of 2014, ...

* John Guthrie Tait, Teacher of famous men including

C. Rajagopalachari Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji'', the Scholar Emeritus''), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and independence activis ...

Navaratna Rama Rao Navaratna Rama Rao (27 May 1877 – 1960) was an eminent Indian political leader and writer based in Mysore. The title "Navaratna", which means ''Nine Gems'', was given to him by the seer of Uttaradi Mutt for the scholarly services rendered to t ...

* M. J. Thirumalachar,

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Sir Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar OBE, FNI, FASc, FRS, FRIC, FInstP (21 February 1894 – 1 January 1955) was an Indian colloid chemist, academic and scientific administrator. The first director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industr ...

laureate

Notable students

Bharat Ratna The Bharat Ratna (; ''Jewel of India'') is the highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conferred in recognition of "exceptional service/performance of the highest orde ...

Sir M. Visvesvaraya Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (15 September 1861 – 12/14 April 1962), also referred to by his initials, MV, was an Indian civil engineer, administrator, and statesman, who served as the 19th Diwan of Mysore from 1912 to 1918. Visvesvaraya i ...

* Harshavardhan Mudaliar *

C. N. R. Rao Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao BR, (born 30 June 1934), is an Indian chemist who has worked mainly in solid-state and structural chemistry. He has honorary doctorates from 84 universities from around the world and has authored around 1,77 ...

, Indian chemist *

Shivakumara Swami Shivakumara Swami (born Shivanna; 1 April 1907 – 21 January 2019) was an Indian humanitarian, spiritual leader, educator and supercentenarian. He was a Veerashaiva Lingayat religious figure, he joined the Siddaganga Matha in 1930 Karnataka ...

Pusapati Vijayarama Gajapati Raju Maharaja Pusapati Vijayrama Gajapati Raju D.Litt. was an Indian parliamentarian and philanthropist. He was the eldest son of Maharaja Alak Narayanadev Gajapathi Raju and Vidyavathi Devi of Vizianagaram estate in Andhra Pradesh. He was born at ...

, Maharaja of Vizianagaram *

H. Narasimhaiah H. (Hanumanthappa) Narasimhaiah (more popularly Hossur Narasimhaiah; 6 June 1920 – 31 January 2005) was an Indian physicist, educator, writer, freedom fighter and rationalist from Karnataka. Publicly known as "HN", he was the Vice-Chancellor ...

Guruswami Mudaliar Dr. M. R. Guruswami Mudaliar (1880–1958) was an Indian medical practitioner in Madras during the first half of the twentieth century. Early life Guruswami Mudaliar was born in 1880 in a Tuluva Vellala mudaliar family in Nelamangala, (now in ...

Hospet Sumitra Hospet Sumitra was the first Bishop in Rayalaseema of the Church of South India. After graduating from the Central College of Bangalore, he studied theology at the United Theological College, Bengaluru between 1910 and 1913 and was among i ...

N. Santosh Hegde Nitte Santosh Hegde (born 16 June 1940) is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India, former Solicitor General of India and was Lokayukta (ombudsman) for Karnataka State of India from 2006 to 2011. Early life Santosh Hegde was born in a Tulu ...

, Justice *

, leading administrator, author and founder of the Sericulture Department *

N. S. Subba Rao Nanjanagud Subbaraya Subba Rao (14 March 1885 – 29 June 1943) was a professor of economics at Maharaja College, Mysore. He later became Principal of Maharaja College, Mysore and retired as the Vice Chancellor of University of Mysore from 193 ...

Maya Rao Maya Rao (2 May 1928 – 1 September 2014) was an Indian classical dancer, choreographer and educator, in Kathak dance. She is known for her pioneering work in Kathak choreography, especially in dance ballets, and is credited for bringing Kath ...

(1928-2014), Kathak guru * K. M. Koushik, politician *

Rajeshwari Chatterjee Rajeshwari Chatterjee (24 January 1922 – 3 September 2010) was an Indian scientist and an academic. She was the first woman engineer from Karnataka. During her tenure at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, Chatterjee was a profe ...

, pioneer in Indian microwave engineering *

Rahul Dravid Rahul Sharad Dravid (; born 11 January 1973) is an Indian cricket coach and former captain of the Indian national team, currently serving as its head coach. Prior to his appointment to the senior men's national team, Dravid was the Head of ...

, former India and Karnataka cricket player and captain * B. G. L. Swamy, Indian botanist and Kannada writer.

References

Notes

Bangalore University Website
{{Authority control Kingdom of Mysore Colleges in Bangalore Science colleges in India Academic institutions formerly affiliated with the University of Madras